"Voters not Politicians" Submits Petition Signatures

LANSING, Mich., December 18, 2017 – Today, Democrat front group “Voters not Politicians” submitted their petition signatures to the Michigan the State Board of Canvassers in an effort to get “non-partisan” redistricting on the November 2018 ballot. The group, which claims to be “non-partisan,” is led by an assortment of Michigan Democrat Party operatives and has no Republicans involved. The group seeks to place the redistricting process in the hands of a 13-member board comprised of 4 Democrats, 4 Republicans and 5 Independents. How the “Independent” members will be identified in a state without partisan registration is still unclear.

“Voters not Politicians wants to take the redistricting process out of the hands of our elected Representatives and hand it to a panel of bureaucrats who will in no way be accountable to Michigan voters,” said Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser. “This proposal will lead to our citizens having less say in who represents them.”

Sarah Anderson, Michigan Republican Party Deputy Chief of Staff added “This group should be called ‘Democrat voters and Politicians’ seeing as that is who is running it.” She continued, “The Michigan Democrat Party can’t win at the ballot box so they are trying to use ‘Voters not Politicians’ to change the rules. To call this a non-partisan group is blatantly dishonest, and it’s simply an attempt by the Michigan Democrat Party to gerrymander our State constitution.”

The next step is for the signatures to be verified by the State Board of Canvassers. 315,654 valid signatures are needed for the proposal to be added to the November 2018 ballot.